Book launch: ‘Punjabi poetry has lost none of its charm’

Mazhar Tirmizi’s Adh launched at the NCA

LAHORE: “Most people believe that Punjabi poetry is on the decline. This is not true,” Saeed Bhutta, a Punjabi writer, said on Friday.

“Good poets are still read. Mazhar Tirmizi’s name is high on the list,” Bhutta said at the launch of Tirmizi’s book Adh.

Labour and Human Resource Minister Raja Ashfaq Sarwar was the chief guest at the ceremony at the National College of Arts.

Bhutta said the beauty of Tirmizi’s poetry lay in his use of contemporary diction as opposed to archaic language. He praised the poet for effective use of imagery.

“He uses wonderful images of nature such as parrots, lilies, roses and guava gardens,” he said.

Bhutta said Tirmizi’s poetry was not excessively romantic. “This is a good thing because when a poet loses touch with reality readers lose interest,” he said.

Baba Najmi reminisced about how he had met Tirmizi in London. “He has a big soul that always looks out for people,” he said.

Najmi said Tirmizi had the ability to describe things with immense maturity. “People like me write fiery poems. Tirmizi is restrained.”

Some poems from the book were read out on the occasion. Mohtarma Parveen sang one of the poems to a composition by the poet himself.

Tirmizi is best known for the lyric Umran Langian Pabban Bhar. He has published four books before Adh.

Arif Waqar, Hussain Naqvi, Salman Asif and Ghazala Tariq were also present at the launch.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2015.